Wednesday, April 30, 2014

To the Reverend Priests and Deacons
the Presidents and Members of the Parishes
of the Greek Orthodox Communities

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

Χριστός Ἀνέστη! Christ is Risen!

We, the Hierarchs who constitute the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, greet all the Parishes around our great Nation with love and joy, and with significant good news. The Saint Nicholas Church, destroyed in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, is being resurrected at Ground Zero. A long and difficult journey is nearing its remarkable goal, as from the ashes of the destroyed church, a new church structure will soon rise as a manifestation of the glory of God and the victory of the human spirit.

The new Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at Ground Zero will be much more than a rebuilt parish. It will be a National Shrine of our Holy Archdiocese and a place of pilgrimage for our Nation and the whole world. As the Lord said, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations (Mark 11:17). In the next ten years, it is estimated that more than fifty million people will see this National Shrine of our Church, a living embodiment of our Greek Orthodox Christian faith at the epicenter of history that defines the Twenty-first Century.

We are calling upon every parish in our Holy Archdiocese to make a one or two year commitment to raise the necessary funds in order to assist with the rebuilding of this National Shrine by 2016, the one hundredth anniversary of the original Parish of Saint Nicholas. This is an extraordinary moment for the Greek Orthodox Faith, where a small parish church destroyed by an act of hatred and violence will rise again and give a visibility to our Faith and Heritage that has not been seen before. Why the Greek Orthodox Faith? Why not simply the Orthodox Faith?

We call upon every Parish in the land to voluntarily take up this cause and join in the resurrection of the Saint Nicholas Church. This National Institution of our Holy Archdiocese, inspired by Hagia Sophia, will be, by the grace of God, a monument of those who died on the fateful day of September 11, 2001, and of the spirit of sacrificial love of the first responders. It will be a perpetual Sacred Shrine to the never-ending glory of God as fulfilled in our Holy Orthodox Christian Faith.

Praying that the blessings, peace and joy of the Risen Lord be always with you, we remain

2 comments:

Most people I know refer to the Orthodox Faith as the Greek Orthodox Faith to mean the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith in the generic. Even Indian Orthodox and other types of Orthodox folks I've met, especially from overseas call it only "Greek Orthodox." In lists of religions at schools and hospitals, it's almost always Greek Orthodox, not Eastern or just Orthodox. Simply saying the "Orthodox Faith" usually causes the people I talk to at least to think I'm talking about Orthodox Judaism

"Why the Greek Orthodox Faith? Why not simply the Orthodox Faith?"His Eminence asks a good question.May I suggest an answer: look at the history of archdiocese on the archdiocese's website and it talks about the uniate Greek settlement in Florida, but nothing about the origin of Orthodoxy in North America in Alaska, and its spread across the continent before "The first permanent community [of Greek Orthodox] founded in New York City in 1892"http://www.goarch.org/archdiocese/about

That account predates His Eminence, and there are others in the Archdiocese who want to change the narrative-but there are those who want to tell the same old story.

The below is a huge blow to the idea of a united, canonical Orthodox Church in America. When ROCOR declared that they didn't want to be ...

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."